Summer festival season is now upon us!

After a week's vacation spent largely at home and ignoring the internet, which explains why I didn't write last week, I am ready to head into the summer festival season with renewed vigour and excitement.  The annual summer music series are still a little ways off, so we will deal with them at a later date.  This week, let's take a quick look at Ontario's two major theatre festivals that are in full swing now.

This past week, the Shaw Festival in Niagara-on-the-Lake officially opened their 51st season with a slate of 11 plays on 4 stages.  This will be a slightly pared-down season from last year's celebratory 50th season, but promises to be just as entertaining all the same.

Wednesday evening, the curtain went up at the Festival Theatre on Noel Coward's Present Laughter, directed by David Schurmann and starring Steven Sutcliffe, Claire Jullien, Mary Haney and Moya O'Connell.  Githa Sowerby's A Man and Some Women opened at the Court House Theatre on Thursday evening; Bernard Shaw's Misalliance Friday night at the Royal George Theatre; Terence Rattigan's French Without Tears Saturday afternoon at the Royal George Theatre; and finally the big musical for the season, Ragtime, at the Festival Theatre Saturday night.  Other productions will open at all four theatres as the season goes on, of course, but these are the first offerings to set the tone for the 51st season.

I have yet to get to Shaw this season but am working on booking my dates throughout the summer months at the moment, so stay tuned to this space as always throughout the summer for my reviews from both Shaw and Stratford.

The other sidelight on the opening week at Shaw is the fact at the opening of Ragtime last night, twenty-four-year-old ragtime pianist Lee Cohen entertained opening-night guests in the lobby at intermission.  Lee was the winner of the highly-successful online contest, Get Ready to Rag! with his exceptional rendition of the Magnetic Rag.  The prize was to perform at intermission and Cohen also receives a Yahama Clavinova digital piano.  Wish I could have heard Lee last night, but from what I hear this young talent is pretty special, so don't be surprised if he shows up an a concert stage in the area sometime soon.  Are you taking the hint for the first season at the Performing Arts Centre in St. Catharines, Niagara Symphony?

One festival down, one more to go...Monday evening the curtain goes up on the 60th season for the Stratford Shakespeare Festival with a gala performance of Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing on the Festival stage.  Like the Shaw Festival at their opening night last week, Stratford pulls out all the stops and makes the evening a special 'red carpet' event that draws spectators from near and far to see who might be attending.  Many of those same people will be attending the annual garden party this afternoon in the Festival Theatre lobby and gardens.

The opening week continues with the musical 42nd Street at the Festival Theatre Tuesday evening; the family show You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown at the Avon Theatre Wednesday evening; Shakespeare's Cymbeline at the Tom Patterson Theatre Thursday evening; the Gilbert & Sullivan operetta, The Pirates of Penzance Friday evening at the Avon Theatre, and finally the opening of The Matchmaker at the Festival Theatre Saturday evening.  Like Shaw last season, there is a feeling of celebration in the air, with the added intrigue for us here in Niagara of having the big opening night production of Much Ado About Nothing directed by Shaw Festival Artistic Director Emeritus, Christopher Newton.  This is one production I am really looking forward to seeing next month!

But speaking of intrigue, there is a dark cloud hanging over the Stratford Shakespeare Festival as the season is set to get underway, as the Festival finds itself in difficult labour negotiations with a possible strike by its call-centre staff of 53, who recently joined IATSE, the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees.  These employees have been in a legal strike position as of 12:01 am on Friday, May 25th.  Now, the Festival has a contingency plan in place in case the first strike in the history of the Festival actually takes place, but we'll have to see how successful this plan will be should the strike actually go ahead.  Let's hope for the best and a picket line won't be set up alongside the red carpet tomorrow night.

So, lots to watch for in the coming days and weeks for both festivals, and as promised, I will provide regular updates in this space throughout the summer months.

To quote that famous theatrical duck and rabbit:  "On with the show this is it!"

May 27th, 2012.